After two years of darkness during a £15m refurbishment, one of Britain's most dynamic regional theatres today announced it will come back with a bang by staging Ibsen's An Enemy of the People with Sir Antony Sher.

Sheffield's 1970s concrete theatre the Crucible will properly reopen in February after an extensive refit that will, according to new artistic director Daniel Evans, make it a more welcoming and comfortable place for audiences.

He announced a reopening programme that also included a revival of Sam Shepard's True West, the regional premiere of Polly Stenham's That Face and a distinctly Sheffield take on Alice in Wonderland.

Evans, who first came to attention as Peter Pan at the National Theatre 12 years ago and more recently won an Olivier for his starring role in Sunday in the Park With George, is stepping into big shoes at Sheffield.

His predecessors include the Donmar's Michael Grandage, who put Sheffield on the theatrical map during his tenure between 2000-05, attracting stars such as Kenneth Branagh and Joseph Fiennes. After Grandage was Sam West who might have stayed on after his two-year stint, had his bosses agreed to his plans for staging works outside the Crucible during its closure.

Evans said he was proud to be taking over and had fond memories of acting in Sheffield: "There's a palpable feeling among the people of Sheffield of pride in their theatres. The only time I've experienced something comparable is in New York, where waiters stop you as they're serving you and say what they thought of the play."

The Crucible, for some, is not a powerhouse regional theatre but the place where the world snooker championships are held every year. That will continue and Evans said he was already "thinking about how we can create some theatre around the snooker".

Evans himself will direct Sher in An Enemy of the People using Christopher Hampton's version of the play first seen at the National in 1997. Other highlights in the new season include a world premiere in the studio theatre for Sisters, a piece of verbatim theatre based on interviews with British Muslim women carried out after the 7 July bombings by actor Stephanie Street.

The revival of Shepard's True West will have the added twist of the two lead actors having to swap sibling roles each night. And deliberately timed to coincide with the World Cup, as an antidote to the football, there will be Alice, a new Sheffield-based adaptation by Laura Wade of the classic Lewis Carroll book.

Evans has artistic control of the Crucible, its studio and also the much bigger Victorian 1,000-seat Lyceum which hosts West End touring shows, opera, and pantos. Evans said he hoped to link all three venues by showing work based on one writer in future seasons.